Six killed in blast at Pakistan judge rally
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
AT LEAST six people were killed when a powerful blast rocked a stage set up in the Pakistani capital Islamabad for a rally by the country's suspended chief justice yesterday, police said.
Many other people were wounded by the explosion, which happened before top judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry reached the scene, a senior police official said.
"There was an explosion near the stage set for the chief justice and there are casualties. We are trying to ascertain and assess the cause of the blast," Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said.
Earlier, a suicide bomber killed four Pakistanis, including three soldiers, in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border yesterday, hours after pro-Taliban militants vowed to launch attacks on security forces. The attack on a checkpost manned by the army and paramilitary troops was the latest in a wave of violence in Pakistan's northwest in which 100 people, most of them police and troops, have been killed in the past two weeks.
Much of the violence is believed to be aimed at avenging a commando assault on a radical mosque in the capital last week, when 75 militant supporters of hardline clerics were killed.
Complicating government efforts to maintain security is a decision announced by pro-Taliban militants in North Waziristan on Sunday to scrap a 10-month-old peace deal.
The government is trying to save the pact even though critics, including some US officials, said it gave Taliban and al-Qaeda militants a free hand to plot attacks in Afghanistan and beyond.
The militants said they were pulling out of the deal after accusing the government of violating it by deploying more troops in North Waziristan and launching attacks.
"We will launch guerrilla attacks on the security forces," militant spokesman Abdullah Farhad said by telephone late on Monday from an undisclosed location.
Residents said militants blew up two police checkpoints on the outskirts of North Waziristan's main town of Miranshah on Monday night but caused no casualties.
Yesterday, a suicide bomber leapt from the roof of a vehicle as it stopped at a checkpost and blew himself up, killing two soldiers and a passerby and wounding four soldiers, a military spokesman said. One of the soldiers later died of his wounds.
The North Waziristan militants are demanding the removal of army checkposts and the payment of compensation for losses incurred during fighting in 2005 and 2006. Farhad said the militants would not attack army checkposts in built-up areas to avoid civilian casualties but would only open talks if their demands were met.
Agencies
Many other people were wounded by the explosion, which happened before top judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry reached the scene, a senior police official said.
"There was an explosion near the stage set for the chief justice and there are casualties. We are trying to ascertain and assess the cause of the blast," Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said.
Earlier, a suicide bomber killed four Pakistanis, including three soldiers, in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border yesterday, hours after pro-Taliban militants vowed to launch attacks on security forces. The attack on a checkpost manned by the army and paramilitary troops was the latest in a wave of violence in Pakistan's northwest in which 100 people, most of them police and troops, have been killed in the past two weeks.
Much of the violence is believed to be aimed at avenging a commando assault on a radical mosque in the capital last week, when 75 militant supporters of hardline clerics were killed.
Complicating government efforts to maintain security is a decision announced by pro-Taliban militants in North Waziristan on Sunday to scrap a 10-month-old peace deal.
The government is trying to save the pact even though critics, including some US officials, said it gave Taliban and al-Qaeda militants a free hand to plot attacks in Afghanistan and beyond.
The militants said they were pulling out of the deal after accusing the government of violating it by deploying more troops in North Waziristan and launching attacks.
"We will launch guerrilla attacks on the security forces," militant spokesman Abdullah Farhad said by telephone late on Monday from an undisclosed location.
Residents said militants blew up two police checkpoints on the outskirts of North Waziristan's main town of Miranshah on Monday night but caused no casualties.
Yesterday, a suicide bomber leapt from the roof of a vehicle as it stopped at a checkpost and blew himself up, killing two soldiers and a passerby and wounding four soldiers, a military spokesman said. One of the soldiers later died of his wounds.
The North Waziristan militants are demanding the removal of army checkposts and the payment of compensation for losses incurred during fighting in 2005 and 2006. Farhad said the militants would not attack army checkposts in built-up areas to avoid civilian casualties but would only open talks if their demands were met.
Agencies
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